Google Earth And VPlanet Explorer

In Neal Stephenson's seminal 1992 novel Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist is given an amazing service - ordinarily available only to the wealthy - for free.

There is something new: A globe about the size of a grapefruit, a perfectly detailed rendition of Planet Earth, hanging in space at arm's length in front of his eyes. Hiro has heard about this but never seen it. It is a piece of CIC software called, simply, Earth. It is the user interface that CIC uses to keep track of every bit of spatial information that it owns - all the maps, weather data, architectural plans, and satellite surveillance stuff.

Hiro has been thinking that in a few years, if he does really well in the intel biz, maybe he will make enough money to subscribe to Earth and get this thing in his office. Now it is suddenly here, free of charge...
(Read more about CIC Virtual Earth)

Now there are several new products that can bring you a very similar functionality. Google announced on Tuesday that it is giving us all access to a virtual Earth - and you can get a lot out of it for free. VPlanet Explorer combines terabytes of data from satellites, aerial photos and base maps.

Thanks in part to its acquisition of Keyhole Corp., a digital mapping company, Google can now offer you a search box that will take you from outer space straight to any large city on earth. Focus on buildings of interest, or zoom out of town. Images may be up to eighteen months old, at best about one meter is resolved, only PCs can use it (Mac development is ongoing), and you need a good graphics card.